Classes run from Monday through Friday and take place in the morning and afternoon.

Course content

Central in this 26th ETC Summer School is the perspective of Public Health Assets complementary to the classic needs/deficit approach used in the majority of public health and health promotion programmes. The notion of assets has its origin in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and is nowadays often applied as a public health intervention tool. One special aim of this course will be discussing possible connections between Salutogenesis developed by Aaron Antonovsky and the Assets model of health. The aim of the residential Summer School in Alicante is to provide an international and multidisciplinary forum for the exchange of knowledge and skills and opportunities to explore:

- People-environment interaction in relation to the promotion of health and wellbeing (health promotion)

- Internal and external resources and mechanisms that enable people to participate fully in society

- System approaches to create synergy between Salutogenesis and Public Health Assets

The 2-week course opens with a 1-day International Concha Colomer Symposium which is open to a wider audience of local and international professionals and academics with an interest in health promotion or the theme ‘Public Health Assets’. Both theoretical and practical elements of health promotion are included throughout the programme, which is underpinned by an emphasis on participant interaction. This includes field visits to exemplary local programmes and opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences with international colleagues involved in promoting health in its broadest sense. All participants are involved in preparing a "country presentation" to present to all participants during the beginning of the course and will later engage in developing a project (including a research component) as part of an international multidisciplinary working group.

WHO should come?

Participants from the field of health promotion, public health and health or social care professions are all welcome as are participants with a broad understanding of the concept of health. People who have a background in urban planning, education, social work, in research, management, practice or policy will find the course stimulating and relevant.

The course working language is English. The number of participants is limited to 30.

Faculty

Prof. Carlos Alvarez-Dardet Diaz and Prof. Elisa Chilet RosellThe Public Health Research Group of the Universidad de Alicante

Dr. Lenneke VaandragerCoordinator the European Training Consortium in Public Health and Health Promotion, Health & Society, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands